The Democratic Party had a chance to keep them in the fold but they blew it.

No amount of threats of Republican takeover will change the direction the Left is going. If the Republicans take over the House, Senate, and the White House, then so be it. The alarm bells no longer work. The fear-mongering from the centrists will fall on deaf ears.

They have not left their Party - their Party has left them.

Most Democrats do not want to hear this and refuse to accept that it will happen. After all, anything is better than having the Republicans in total control. Well, no, it isn't .

It is worse to be deserted by your own Party. It is worse to have your ideals destroyed and replaced by Republican ideals. Winning the next election is no longer the most important thing for these beaten-down supporters of the Democratic Party.

If you think this is only a lone voice expressing dissatisfaction with the Party and , in the end, we will all unite behind Hillary to keep the White House, I think you are tragically mistaken.

The Democratic Left will either take back the Democratic Party or they will start their own Party. They will suffer no more under the illusion of being represented by the Democratic politicians in Washington.

After reading the link by Greenwald, it is pretty obvious that he is in possession of a lot of information. And I would assume he got the information from Edward Snowden.
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Obama told Charlie Rose last night:

"What I can say unequivocally is that if you are a US person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls … by law and by rule, and unless they … go to a court, and obtain a warrant, and seek probable cause, the same way it's always been, the same way when we were growing up and we were watching movies, you want to go set up a wiretap, you got to go to a judge, show probable cause."

The GOP chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, told CNN that the NSA "is not listening to Americans' phone calls. If it did, it is illegal. It is breaking the law." Talking points issued by the House GOP in defense of the NSA claimed that surveillance law only "allows the Government to acquire foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S.-persons (foreign, non-Americans) located outside the United States."

And if the NSA has not been following the guidelines set by law, then they should be held accountable. It appears that the laws may have been broken and they need to be fixed from the damage done by the Congress, rushing through legislation at the end of the year before it expires. To do something like that, with something as important as rights guaranteed by our Constitution, is unforgivable.

It seems to me that our entire government, from the top to the bottom have been delinquent in their duties? Even the President has been lax in seeing that the laws are being executed in a lawful way.

The Attorney-General gave his approval to the NSA to do more or less whatever they wanted. And they followed few guidelines. They did whatever they wanted. Make no mistake. This is lawlessness on a grand scale. This is the scandal some folks have been looking for.

But Congress cannot be forgiven for their incompetence. The Attorney-General should resign. The NSA Director, Keith Alexander, needs to step down also. Obama needs to clean house with these people. The American people cannot and will not accept such lawlessness from any government officials. The DNI position should be done away with and go back to the way it was when it worked. The intelligence is too diluted.

Finally, the Senate Intelligence Committee needs to be changed. We need some fresh thinkers with intelligence watching out for us. Those presently on that committee have lost the faith of the American people. They can keep their Senate seats if the voters want them, but they should no longer be sitting on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

It is a mess from the top to the bottom and only one person can fix it. That would be Barack Obama. He is the only President we have at this time. This would be his true legacy if he could fix it. But he's going to have to fire some people and replace them with qualified people that see reality in the scope of history. Fortunately, the FBI Director is leaving. That would be a good place to start. This is just my humble opinion.

When they say "smaller" government, they mean they want the people in general to have a "smaller" piece of the government and any benefits it may provide. At the same time, they want "bigger" government for themselves. They want a bigger military that is interventionist in nature. They want government to provide and train the soldiers so they can expand to the far reaches of the known world.

They want laws written to protect their interests and make it easier for them to make more wealth for themselves and their family of friends. They have shown little interest or compassion for the vast majority of citizens that are harmed by these laws.

They want "government" to make trade treaties with foreign nations so they can expand to countries with low wages. Then they want to bring all their products back to America to sell and make the maximum profit. That is the type of government that Republicans desire and get.

It is big government at its worst. They are not comfortable when the citizens at large decide to create a government program for themselves, whereby they donate a small percentage out of their earnings to go into an account for when they are old enough to retire. These people do not ask for much. But even that is too much for many Republicans to withstand. They say we cannot afford these entitlement programs like Social Security.

But they had no problem when they were spending the money out of the people's fund. It helped them to create more wealth for themselves and now they don't want to pay it back. There is no Social Security fund!, they yell. "We spent it!", they say.

Yes, you did. You spent it but you still owe the people that money. So long as your money is good, so is that fund. When you are in the gutter with the rest of us, then we will know that you do indeed support "smaller" government...